The invention relates to a method and apparatus for displaying physiological patient data, and particularly, to a method and apparatus for displaying physiological patient data in a colorized waterfall format.
Medical patient monitors are typically employed by physicians and other health care providers to monitor the physiological data of patients in operating rooms, intensive care units and emergency rooms, and for conducting long-term trend monitoring such as Holter monitoring or stress testing.
An array of sensors (also commonly called transducers) are typically connected to the patient to acquire the various physiological data. These data are then displayed on the screen of a monitor either in graphical or numerical form. These data may also be recorded or displayed on analog or digital strip chart recorders, spreadsheets and plotting programs.
In prior patient monitoring systems, and particularly in Holter and stress testing systems, it was found to be advantageous to take a series of successive periods of physiological patient data and cascade the periods in a quasi-three-dimensional display format to render visually obvious the abnormalities attendant to certain physiological conditions. However, this kind of data presentation can become cluttered if too many waveform samples are displayed at any one time. Moreover, some users of the equipment find such a display presentation visually unappealing, notwithstanding the clinical importance of the display technique.
Accordingly, the invention provides a method of displaying physiological and/or pathological patient data (hereinafter, the terms xe2x80x9cphysiological dataxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cphysiological patient dataxe2x80x9d shall be broadly defined as including pathological data, or any other type of patient information that is capable of being displayed using the invention). The method includes acquiring the physiological patient data, storing the physiological patient data in a waveform array, and displaying the physiological patient data on a monitor having a first (for example an xe2x80x9cXxe2x80x9d) coordinate axis, a second (for example a xe2x80x9cYxe2x80x9d) coordinate axis, and a color component. In one form of the invention, the step of displaying the physiological patient data includes dividing the waveform array into a series of successive waveforms such that each successive waveform is plotted at a successive Y coordinate, and dividing each waveform into a series of successive data points such that each data point is plotted at a successive X coordinate and assigned a color according to the amplitude of the data point. The waveform array may be physiological data that represents individual physiological cycles such as heart beats, or the waveform array may be data that has been aggregated in some fashion such as averaging or filtering, or reduction to median complex.
The invention also provides an apparatus for acquiring and displaying physiological patient data. The apparatus includes a sensor or a transducer for acquiring physiological patient data from a patient, a processor for receiving the physiological patient data and for generating a waveform display on a monitor having an X coordinate axis, a Y coordinate axis and a plurality of color pixels such that the physiological patient data is stored in a waveform array. The processor divides the waveform array into a series of successive waveforms, and assigns each successive waveform a respective Y coordinate. The processor also divides each waveform into a series of successive data points and assigns each data point a respective X coordinate. Next, the processor assigns a color (which may be a shade of gray in the case of a black and white monitor, or a variation in intensity in the case of a monochrome monitor) according to the amplitude of the data point and plots the data point on the display monitor so that the pixel at the respective X and Y coordinate is energized using that color.
It is an advantage of the invention to provide a method and apparatus of displaying amplitude differences of physiological patient data using a gray scale or color display presentation.
Other features and advantages of the invention are set forth in the following drawings, detailed description and claims.